09:51 AM PDT on Friday, October 14, 2005

By BROOKE DONALD, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON -- The soap opera-like saga that followed the knee-bashing of Olympian ice princess Nancy Kerrigan 11 years ago has been adapted into an opera, with Kerrigan's cry of "Why me? Why me?" providing the performance's climactic moment.

AP File

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, foreground, pass one another during Olympic figure skating practice in Hamar, Norway, in this Feb. 17, 1994, file photo.

"Nancy and Tonya: The Opera" is scheduled to be performed at Tufts University in the spring.

Kerrigan, who grew up in the Boston area and now lives in suburban Lynnfield, became a household name when an associate of rival skater Tonya Harding clubbed her on the knee with a baton as she left the ice during practice at the 1994 U.S. championships in Detroit.

The attack prevented Kerrigan from competing, but she recovered to win a silver medal at the 1994 Olympic games in Lillehammer a few weeks later. Harding, from Portland, Ore., finished out of the running.

"Tonya and Nancy was the first completely insane scandal that took over the country," said Elizabeth Searle of Arlington, who wrote the opera's libretto.

Videotape of Kerrigan -- her face contorted in agony, grabbing her knee and wailing "Why me? Why me?" -- was a TV staple in the days after the incident.

Harding, the cigarette-smoking, pickup-driving bad girl, had said she would "kick some butt" in the Olympics.

Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Stone, and two other men served time for planning and carrying out the attack. Harding avoided jail time despite her guilty plea to covering up the attack. She received a lifetime ban by the U.S. Figure Skating Association and apologized in person to Kerrigan.

"This is the classic envy story and it was just so strange and got stranger by the day," Searle said.

Attempts to reach Kerrigan and Harding on Thursday by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

Searle, 43, said she did not consult the two skaters about the one-act opera, which was pieced together using actual quotes uttered by the women and others involved in the scandal. Searle plucked from newspaper reports, FBI transcipts and her previous novella about the skating rivals, "Celebrities in Disgrace," which is being made into a short film. Tufts graduate student student Abigail Al Dorry is writing the music.

The opera opens with Kerrigan and Harding holding dueling press conferences at the 1994 Olympic games, which took place just weeks after the knee-whacking.

"There are elements of parody in it, but I really feel for this story," Searle said. "Girls in America are either raised to be Tonyas or Nancys. I think any girl can relate to these two women and what they went through."